I have football on the brain.
Having spent a good chunk of time recently going through stat sheets, newspaper clippings and wadded-up bits of old paperwork, I have been able to pull together a pretty good approximation of what Coupeville High School’s gridiron records should be.
To see the full list, pop over to: https://coupevillesports.com/2016/09/10/roll-call-of-the-gridiron-greats/.
Then, come back here as we use today’s Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame induction, our 66th so far, to pay tribute to two of those records.
Spanning the decades, and both sides of the ball, we’re honoring a record single-game performance and a season’s worth of work by a fired-up defense.
So welcome to these hallowed digital walls former Wolf QB Gabe Eck, being honored for the night he threw for 403 yards against Chimacum, and the 1996 CHS defense, which holds the school’s record for most sacks by a team in a season.
After this, you’ll find them atop the blog, under the Legends tab.
And soon, immortalized on the school’s football record board in the gym, once the update is completed.
First up is Eck, who, although he only played one season in the red and black (he’s sporting Oak Harbor purple and gold this season) accomplished something no other CHS gunslinger ever did.
It was the night of Sept. 18, 2015, and Coupeville had jumped across on the ferry to face Chimacum.
Both teams entered at 0-2, and, after an injury to starting QB Hunter Downes, Eck, who had thrown eight passes at the high school level, was making his first prep start.
He responded in high style, completing 19 of 34 passes, spreading the ball out among five receivers as the Wolves captured their only win of the 2015 campaign, a 28-26 thriller sealed by a fourth-quarter field goal off the foot of Zane Bundy.
Hunter Smith was Eck’s main target, hauling in nine passes for 178 yards (just 24 shy of the school single-game receiving record).
CJ Smith (4-93), Ty Eck (3-82), Jordan Ford (1-28) and Lathom Kelley (2-22) also snagged aerials, with Ty Eck reaching the end zone twice and Hunter Smith once.
Coupeville kept its hosts guessing, as Wiley Hesselgrave rampaged for 152 yards on the ground, but it’s Gabe Eck’s arm which holds a place in Wolf lore.
The Wolves have had a string of strong QB’s (Bob Rea, Corey Cross, Scott McGraw, Brad Sherman, Ian Smith and Joel Walstad, to name but a few), but the highest any of them (Sherman) ever reached was 386 passing yards in a single game.
The only member of the 400-yard club walked the halls at CHS for just a year, but, until someone takes his record down, his impact outweighed his tenure.
Joining Eck’s single-game performance in the Hall is the season-long rampage thrown down 20 years ago by the 1996 gridiron squad.
While sacks are a relatively new stat (back in the ’40s and ’50s they were just tallied as tackles), all my research could find no more effective Wolf team at snaring the elusive QB than the one which played 20 seasons ago.
Led by the school’s career sack leader, Nick Sellgren, Coupeville recorded 22 sacks that season, spread among six Wolves.
Sellgren topped the charts with seven take-downs, while Joey Biller (4), Bill Marti (3), Rich Morris (3), Jason Sechrist (3) and Justin Thiesen (2) all chipped in.
While sacks are an exclamation point, interceptions (Arik Garthwaite snared a team-high four) and pass deflections (Jerry Helm poked away seven) are also important.
With that in mind, we induct the Wolf defensive unit as a whole, honoring the 21 players who make an appearance on the ’96 stat sheet:
Player | Tackles | Sacks | Fumbles | INT | Deflect |
Greg White | 45 | 2 | 1 | ||
Mike Vaughan | 25 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Pete Petrov | 43 | 1 | 1 | ||
Arik Garthwaite | 26 | 4 | 1 | ||
Joey Biller | 61 | 4 | 1 | 1 | |
Dan Palmquist | 1 | ||||
Peter Charron | 2 | ||||
Damon Vracin | 8 | ||||
Jomo Bowman | 8 | 1 | |||
Jerry Helm | 36 | 2 | 7 | ||
Rich Morris | 67 | 3 | 1 | ||
Bill Marti | 93 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Nick Sellgren | 84 | 7 | 2 | ||
Dan Russell | 2 | ||||
Jason Sechrist | 45 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
Gary Boyke | 4 | ||||
Justin Thiesen | 36 | 2 | |||
Aaron Henderson | 3 | 1 | |||
Jeremy Ratcliff | 1 | ||||
Matt Brown | 2 | ||||
Tariq Omar | 1 | ||||
TOTALS | 593 | 22 | 6 | 11 | 20 |
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